Our text for today comes from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 5, Verse 45, wherein it saith:
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
The rainy season began more or less on schedule this year with an overnight downpour through Monday morning. A brief interval of sunshine, broken by dingy cumulus cloudsmarched ahead of the next cold front to pass through, bringing temperatures in the mid-30s and the prospect of subfreezing lows tonight.
A flash flood warning is in effect for several of the surrounding counties, and a 15-year-old girl in El Dorado met her end early this morning when her car skidded off the road and submerged in a drainage ditch. Rollover accidents abound.
What this means for the Garden Constant is a confirmation of our decision not to be lulled into that false sense of security and begin planting last week. Temperatures around 80º in the first week of March are uncommon but not unheard of, and are often followed by the early April or mid-May blizzard. The National Weather Service tells us to expect a 90% probability of a threshold low temperature of 36º on April 15. (Similar data for most of the country lives here.)
Dad, who lives about 45 minutes south of the City on the Edge of Dreams, doesn't plan to do any planting until April 11, but then, he does his planting by the moon. The next full moon is on April 9, almost a week before the last frost date, and three days before the seeds go in, but filial piety takes precedence.
The Garden Constant is based (more or less) on the Square Foot Gardening system developed
by Mel Bartholemew. Our beds are set up in three-square units, rather than individual squares, since we built them from 12-foot-long boards taken from the roof of a garage we tore down a few years ago. Before the rains came, we swept up the leaves from the paths between the squares and spread wood ash onto growing mixture. We then turned over the mixture in one (count 'em!), one, square before getting too pooped out to continue.
Our return to the soil the following day was frustrated by the rain, which made the growing medium (since it's not exactly soil, we're at a loss for what to call it) all sticky and unworkable. More vermiculite and peat moss will fix that problem.
There was a full moon last night, as a matter of fact. According to Mom's moon schedule, Sunday was the day to plant peas but neither she nor I spent any time working in the garden as we preferred not to watch too carefully the cousins towing each other in Dad's garden tractor/trailer rig. Shark Girl was the youngest of the unassisted drivers, but still. Yikes!
ReplyDeleteMom told me that though yesterday was not a good time to plant peas, today is just dandy. And if it weren't for the 20-degree temperatures outside my door I'd be out there right now. I'd probably put in a bit of spinach while I was at it. Good or bad, my dedication as a gardener just isn't that insane and so I am warm and thinking of lunch.
I also seem to remember something about planting potatoes on the 17th but I believe there's some conflict amongst the folk of tales. Perhaps it should wait until the new moon on the 26th. I do not know the answer and I have no plan to plant potatoes.